The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as /ˈræk/, a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army except medical, dental and veterinary officers and chaplains (who belonged to the same corps as the men), the Ulster Defence Regiment which recruited women from 1973, and nurses (who belonged to Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps) belonged from 1949 to 1992.

History

The WRAC was formed on 1 February 1949 by Army Order 6 as the successor to the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) that had been founded in 1938. For much of its existence, its members performed administrative and other support tasks. In March 1952 the ranks of the WRAC, which had previously been Subaltern, Junior Commander, Senior Commander and Controller were harmonised with the rest of the British Army.

In 1974, two soldiers of the corps were killed by the Provisional IRA in the Guildford pub bombings.

In October 1990 WRAC officers employed with other corps were transferred to those corps and in April 1992 the WRAC was disbanded and its remaining members transferred to the Corps they served with. Those that served with the Royal Army Pay Corps, the Corps of Royal Military Police, the Military Provost Staff Corps, the Royal Army Educational Corps, the Army Legal Corps and the Staff Clerks from the Royal Army Ordnance Corps were transferred to the newly formed Adjutant General's Corps. The post of Director WRAC, which carried the rank of Brigadier, was also abolished and it was seven years before a woman, Brigadier Patricia Purves, again reached that rank.

A corps (/ˈkɔər/; plural corps /ˈkɔərz/; via French, from the Latin corpus "body") is an organized body of people.

It may be:

Military formation

In many armies, a corps is a battlefield formation composed of two or more divisions, and typically commanded by a lieutenant general. During World War I and World War II, due to the large scale of combat, multiple corps were combined into armies which then formed into army groups. In Western armies with numbered corps, the number is often indicated in Roman numerals (e.g., VII Corps).

Australia

In the later stages of World War I, the five infantry divisions of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF)—consisting entirely of personnel who had volunteered for service overseas—were united as the Australian Corps, on the Western Front, under Lieutenant General Sir John Monash.

The 1st Army Corps (French: 1^er Corps d'Armée) was first formed before World War I. During World War II it fought in the Campaign for France in 1940, on the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Elba in 1943 - 1944, and in the campaigns to liberate France in 1944 and invade Germany in 1945.

World War 1

The Corps saw service throughout the entirety of World War I, including participating in the Battle of Passchendaele (as part of the French First Army). At the time of the Battle of Passchendaele, the Corps comprised the 1st Division, 2nd Infantry Division, 51st Infantry Division and 162nd Infantry Division.

World War 2

1940 Campaign

1st Army Corps was constituted on August 27, 1939, in Lille under the command of Major General Sciard as part of the French mobilization for war. Initially assigned as part of the French First Army, the corps was transferred to the French Seventh Army and moved to coastal regions near Calais and Dunkerque by mid-November 1939. On May 10, 1940 the Corps commanded the 25th Motorised Infantry Division (25^e DIM) in addition to its organic units.